16
Miles
Two years ago, I put my best friend in the ground.
Two years ago, I had more responsibilities put on my shoulders than I really knew what to do with. It left me wondering how the fuck Damien managed to stay sane through it all.
And two years ago, Hayley took off running for the hills in the middle of the night without a note, text, or phone call to let anyone know where she was going. She didn’t show up at the funeral—only sent one single black rose with I will always love you on a note for someone else to put on his casket for her.
The girl was good at staying hidden. I didn’t know if she had ever had Damien’s kid. I didn’t know if she was even still alive, really. The woman was fucking untraceable.
Until today.
A light knock soundedon the front door as I was getting ready to head to bed, and with a muttered curse, I walked out of my bedroom to go open the door.
Everyone knew not to show up at my house uninvited unless it was a fucking emergency. I liked my solitude—preferred it actually. I hated having to deal with people, hence why I had always been silent around everyone but Damien and Hayley.
“Somebody better be fucking dying,” I snarled as I swung open my front door.
My eyes widened in shock when I saw Hayley standing on my front porch, a baby—probably a little older than one—wrapped up in a blanket in her arms. Hayley was shivering, her eyes bloodshot and tired.
Without me having to say a word to prompt her, Hayley spoke, her voice hoarse with exhaustion.
“I have nowhere else to go,” she told me as she cast her eyes down to the cement porch beneath her feet.
I was so shocked to see her standing in front of me that I just merely stepped aside, gesturing for her to come in. She stepped in past me, her eyes wandering around, taking in my home.
God, she was still as beautiful as she had been two years ago. She had lost a hell of a lot of weight, and she looked tired as fuck, but she was still the most breathtaking woman I had ever seen.
“Where in the hell have you been the last two years?” I demanded to know once we were just standing there for a good minute and I had regained my composure.
She shrugged. “I couldn’t be here,” she quietly told me as she rocked the boy in her arms when he began to make some noise, instantly quieting him. “But I just got evicted—lost my job, lost everything.” She looked up at me with pleading blue eyes—blue eyes that had always done me in. “Please don’t send me away, Miles,” she begged me, her bottom lip trembling, tears glistening in her beautiful eyes.
I sighed as I thrust a hand through my hair. “You're dumb as hell to think that I’m sending you away, Hayley,” I told her. Her shoulders sagged in relief. “When’s the last time either of you ate?” I asked her.
“He ate a couple of hours ago. He should be good for the rest of the night,” she informed me, purposely leaving out when she had last eaten.
I arched an eyebrow at her as I led her into the kitchen. “And you?” I asked.
She just shrugged at me. That was all the answer I needed. She wasn’t taking care of herself.
Damien would kick my fucking ass if he were still alive.
“I’m going to make you something to eat,” I told her. “My bedroom is over there,” I said, pointing towards the room located down the hall. “Sweats are in the second drawer; shirts are in the closet. Get a shower. Food should be done when you’re finished.”
She looked down at the little boy in her arms. “What about—"
I held my arms out to her. Chewing nervously on her bottom lip, she gently handed him over to me. I looked down at his face, my heart squeezing painfully in my chest at how much he looked like Damien. It was like looking at my cousin all over again.
The kid was the spitting fucking image of him. It was like looking down into Damien’s baby face, but with Hayley’s shade of blue eyes.
“God, he looks so much like him,” I whispered once she was in my room. “Your dad would have loved you, kid.”
I jerkedawake to the sound of a baby crying—an ear-splitting wail that scared the absolute shit out of me. I jumped out of bed and rushed out of my room only to find Hayley trying to soothe the little boy, her hand smoothing over his hair as she bounced him, gently shooshing him.
“What’s wrong with him?” I asked her.
She shrugged. “I don’t know,” she whispered, sounding extremely distressed.